- Volunteers / Volunteer & Community Engagement / University supported projects / Incredible Edible Manchester / How to get involved
How to get involved
We have identified a series of plots across Manchester that we've transformed into 'incredible edible' sites where fruit, vegetables and herbs grow for all the community to use. Now all people living in the local community will have free access to use the edible plants to eat and cook with.
The majority of the incredible edible plots are close to campus or University Halls of Residence.
Some of these plots were previously vacant overgrown pieces of land just on the street; while others are in local parks.
Volunteer Welcome event
Monday 2 October, 17:00 - 18:30
Platt Fields Park, Fallowfield
Anyone interested in volunteering with Incredible Edible Manchester this year, please come down to our Incredible Edible Greenhouse which is located near the playground and lake in Platt Fields park!
We are going to be preparing the plots and can answer any questions anyone has about the project.
For more details about this event, please visit our Facebook page.
Incredible Edible Manchester plots
Please see below for more details about each individual plot, with dates of future events.
Working in partnership with the Brailsford, Moseley & Brailsford Street Residents' Group (BMBRG), we have helped to develop the raised beds that are situated between Braemar Road and Brailsford Road on the Fallowfield/Levenshulme border.
A lot of you who live off campus live in this area.
Working on the site since October 2014, we have been involved in:
- weeding and giving the beds a good tidy
- planting bulbs to make the soil in the beds more fertile
- topping up the beds with compost and top soil
- planting a wide range of herbs
- planting fruit trees, including cherry, apple and pear trees
- planting fruit bushes including strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
The Moseley Road plot is situated opposite the Armitage Sports Centre on Moseley Road in Fallowfield. It is just a a few minutes walk away from the Fallowfield campus and is now managed by student led Incredible Edible
Student Action volunteers.
The plot had been overgrown and neglected for a great number of years. Many local residents considered it an eyesore.
We have been working on the Moseley Road plot since October 2014 in which we have:
- Cleared the site extensively
- Cut back overgrown vegetation
- Built wooden planters and filled with compost
- Planted fruit trees, strawberries, herbs and lots of different vegetables on the plot.
The Green Group at St Chad's Church in Ladybarn kindly welcomed us in to help them develop an incredible edible plot that is now open for the the community to use.
Working in partnership with the Church committee since March 2015, we have been involved with:
- Planning and designing the community orchard and garden
- Cutting back hedges to open up the community orchard and garden to the public
- Planting an orchard including apple, cherry and plum trees
- Creating new beds and borders for more edible plants
- Building planters and trellis
- Creating a pathway, helping to make the orchard more inviting to the public.
Located on campus, we have been working in partnership with St Peter's Chaplaincy throughout 2017 to develop and Incredible Edible plot.
This has involved building raised beds and planting lots of different fruit, vegetables and herbs in the beds.
Daisy Tudor
"I am a student midwife, and was initially attracted to the idea of volunteering on Incredible Edible Manchester as it has a strong link with public health. During placement I often received feedback from women highlighting that they found fruit and vegetables to be too expensive. Government schemes exist for certain women to receive vouchers for fresh fruit and vegetables, but wouldn’t it be better to have free fruit and vegetables growing on your doorstep without needing to fill in a form first?
My first volunteering role for Incredible Edible involved wielding a hoe (something I had never done before) to clear out weeds in an area of raised beds in Fallowfield. Other roles involved collecting footage using the team GoPro camera, planting lots of flowers and bulbs, having a general chat and getting to know people. I enjoyed the event so much that I volunteered to help with the project’s marketing and raise awareness of the project. I am specifically involved in the YouTube page where I organise footage from the Incredible Edible events and edit it into fun, interesting videos. These videos showcase what Incredible Edible has been doing in the community. I thought that videos offer an alternative format that may appeal to those who don’t want to read long articles.
My volunteering with Incredible Edible has definitely been fruitful (awful joke, I know). I don’t get to unleash my creative side on a regular basis in my degree, so it was great that this project allowed me to develop these skills. I have also met a number of wonderful people, from a wide mix of degree schemes, cultures and ages.
I like that the Incredible Edible events are informal yet productive – the volunteering days are fun but at the same time disused areas of the community are transformed into fresh food hubs! I would definitely recommend other students to join this exciting project and come meet some new people, and learn some new skills!"
